How to Write a Website RFP That Actually Gets You the Right Agency

You have decided to hire an agency to build your website, and now you need to write an RFP, a request for proposal. Most business owners have never done this and worry about getting it wrong: how detailed, how long, what to leave out. The stakes feel high because they are. A vague RFP produces vague proposals, vague proposals lead to hiring the wrong agency, and the wrong agency leads to an expensive site that does not solve your problem.

A good RFP prevents all of that. It forces you to think clearly about what you actually need, it helps agencies understand your goals, and it produces apples-to-apples proposals you can genuinely compare. Here is how to write one that works for a project in the Philippines.

What is a website RFP and when do you need one?

A website RFP is a short, formal document that describes your project, asks agencies to submit proposals, and states how you will evaluate them. It is a conversation starter that sets expectations and prevents misunderstandings later.

You need one when you are hiring an outside agency rather than building in-house, when the investment is meaningful (roughly ₱250,000 / $4,500 and up), when the scope is complex or has several objectives, when you want to compare proposals side by side, or when writing it would force you to clarify what you actually need. You do not need an RFP for a simple, well-defined job with one known vendor, such as a single landing page in two weeks. For most full website projects above about ₱500,000 ($9,000), an RFP is well worth the few hours it takes.

What sections should a website RFP include?

A good RFP includes company context, goals, audience, current problems, scope, timeline, budget, evaluation criteria, and questions for the agency. Keep it organized and easy to scan; the whole thing should run two to four pages.

Open with a half-page on your company: what you do, how long you have operated, your size, your market, and what makes you different. This lets an agency gauge your industry and scale, since a 50-person services firm has different needs than a 5-person local shop.

The goals section is the heart of the document, so be specific and measurable. "Increase leads" is useless; "generate 30 qualified enquiries a month from our service area" tells an agency exactly whether they can help. Strong goals look like raising organic traffic by a set amount within a year, replacing a site that is losing customers, or establishing credibility in a new segment. Weak goals sound like "have a modern website" or "look professional." Vague goals create mismatched expectations from the first reply.

Describe your target audience with the same precision. Not "business owners" but something like "operations managers at mid-sized firms who evaluate suppliers quarterly, trust peer recommendations, and have little patience for sales pitches." The sharper the persona, the better the agency can design messaging, calls to action, and structure around it.

Then assess your current situation honestly, because it tells agencies what you are running from. Maybe your site is seven years old, not mobile-responsive, and invisible in search. Maybe you have no site at all and have lived on referrals. Maybe traffic is fine but conversion is under 1% and quick fixes have not helped. For why the underlying build quality matters here, see our guide on custom development versus template builders.

The scope section should list concrete deliverables (discovery and strategy, information architecture, wireframes, visual design, development, SEO setup, integrations, testing, launch support, training) and, just as importantly, what is not included, such as ad management, copywriting, or ongoing content updates. Pair this with a realistic timeline; a good custom site takes three to six months, so state your must-have dates rather than inventing an impossible one.

Should you include a budget in a website RFP?

Yes, you should include an honest budget range, because it changes what an agency recommends. They need to know whether you are thinking ₱150,000 or ₱600,000, and an exact figure is not required. The most common RFP failure is hiding the budget, which leads agencies to either overshoot or strip the proposal down to the bone.

Here are realistic ranges in the Philippines by project type, useful both for setting your own number and for sanity-checking proposals.

Be honest about where you sit. Saying you have ₱400,000 when you really have ₱200,000 just wastes everyone's time, because proposals will be built for the larger number and then collapse on the reality check. A line like "our budget is ₱200,000 to ₱350,000 and we will flex up if the value justifies it" is both honest and actionable. For more detail, see our web design cost in the Philippines guide.

How should you evaluate agency proposals?

Evaluate on more than price: weigh approach, team, timeline, communication, and cost together, and state your weighting in the RFP itself so agencies focus on what matters to you. You might assign 40% to relevant experience, 30% to the proposed approach, 20% to team and process, and 10% to timeline, or keep it simpler. Either way, telling agencies how you will decide stops them over-investing in things you do not care about.

Ask a focused set of questions you want every proposal to answer, around ten to fifteen, not fifty. Useful ones include who your primary contact will be, how revisions work and how many rounds are included, how post-launch support is handled, whether they can share three case studies of similar work, what their SEO and QA process looks like, and how payments are structured. Comparable questions yield comparable answers, so you can see at a glance that one agency includes five revision rounds while another bills them hourly.

When proposals arrive, read for red flags and green flags. Red flags include pricing dramatically lower than the rest (usually corners being cut), proposals that ignore your questions, copy-pasted templates, and no references or case studies. Green flags include thoughtful clarifying questions, references willing to actually talk to you, clear familiarity with your industry, and a proposal visibly tailored to your project. The agencies asking good questions before they quote are the ones who care about understanding the work.

How should you send the RFP and how long should it be?

Send the RFP to three to five agencies you are genuinely interested in, give them two to three weeks to respond, and keep the document itself to two to four pages. Sending to twenty agencies signals you are shopping on price, and good teams are selective about what they pursue, so most will not reply.

Address it to the decision-maker at each agency, usually the founder or business-development lead, with a short note explaining that you are hiring for a website build, that the attached RFP covers your goals, timeline, and budget range, and that you would welcome questions or a proposal by your deadline. Keep the RFP tight: a brief overview, your company background, goals, current situation, scope, timeline, budget, evaluation criteria, and questions. Detailed enough to be clear, short enough to actually get read.

A few common mistakes are worth avoiding. Do not be vague about goals, do not ask for five projects bundled as one, do not hide your budget, and do not expect agencies to deliver a full competitive analysis or strategy for free inside a proposal, since that is real paid work. For another angle on requirements that often get skipped, see our guide on why accessibility is a legal and business priority.

A clear RFP takes a few hours and saves you months of confusion and the kind of scope creep that quietly inflates the final bill. Be specific about goals, honest about budget, and focused with your questions, and you will get proposals from agencies that truly understand the project. If you would rather start with a conversation than a document, book a call and we will help you scope it properly.